Funds, Locks & Budgets
How the Opacus prepay system protects you and the network.
What are Locks?
A Lock is not a fee; it is a minimum reserved balance. Think of it like a security deposit or collateral. Because operations like cross-chain bridges and decentralized storage happen almost instantly across disjointed networks, the Opacus protocol requires you to maintain a minor liquid lock associated with your active project.
Handling 402 BUDGET_EXHAUSTED
If your balance drains below the required lock sum of your active services, the APIs will start failing fast with a 402 BUDGET_EXHAUSTED code.
How to resolve:
- Navigate to the Developer Console -> Billing.
- Click Add Funds and deposit USDC on Base.
- Once the network confirms (~3 seconds), your locks reactivate and 402s stop immediately.